When Oakland native and Oregon transfer Jabari Brown played his first game for No. 12 Missouri on Monday, it provoked a question: Who will be the first player to be a starter on an NCAA championship team at two different schools?

It's almost inevitable the way players switch schools these days, and there are candidates.

More than 400 players switched four-year schools during or after the 2011-12 season, the fourth straight year more than 400 players transferred. The NCAA estimates that 40 percent of Division I players are switching schools by the end of their sophomore year.

Sixteen of the top 22 teams in this week's Associated Press poll have at least one player playing a prominent role after beginning his college career at another four-year school.

The transfers' influence was evident over the weekend, when Mark Lyons, a transfer from Xavier, scored the winning basket in Arizona's comeback victory over then-No. 5 Florida and Rotnei Clarke, formerly of Arkansas, scored 19 points to help Butler upset then-No. 1 Indiana.

This year, no team has benefited more from transfers than Missouri. Four of the Tigers' top six scorers are transfers who became eligible this season, including Brown, who scored 12 points in his debut against South Carolina State. Missouri also relies on Alex Oriakhi (a transfer from Connecticut who leads Missouri in rebounding), Keion Bell (Pepperdine) and Earnest Ross (Auburn).

Oriakhi is the most intriguing, historically speaking, because he was a starter on the 2011 UConn team that won a national title, and he is currently a Missouri starter. If the Tigers were to win a national title this season, it is believed Oriakhi would become the first player to start on national championship teams at two different schools.

The trick for Missouri coach Frank Haith, whose team faces No. 10 Illinois on Saturday, is to figure out how to integrate Brown into the rotation in midseason.

Brown, who has the transfer thing down pat, did start for different title winners in high school: California Division IV state champion Salesian-Richmond as a sophomore and National High School Invitational champion Findlay Prep of Henderson, Nev., as a junior. He almost got another state title with Oakland High School, his last stop before Oregon, as a senior.

Brown, who played just two games as an Oregon freshman last year before leaving, is one of several significant transfers whose eligibility at their new school began or will begin this week.

Walk-on for glory: Perhaps the quintessential college basketball moment came during Butler's upset of Indiana on Saturday, when Alex Barlow, a walk-on, controlled the ball throughout Butler's final possession, made a great move and scored the winning basket in overtime, while Indiana's Cody Zeller, the preseason national player of the year according to several publications, was not even on the court at the time, because Hoosiers coach Tom Creanthought the team was better off without him in that situation.

It brings to mind the ultimate non-scholarship player - Scottie Pippen. No college in his home state of Arkansas wanted him - not even Arkansas-Monticello or Southern Arkansas. As a favor, the coach at Central Arkansas allowed Pippen to join the squad as a team manager. A little later, a key player got hurt, Pippen got on the team, and, well ...

Music to his ears: LSU's starting center, Andrew Del Piero, is on scholarship now, but he may be the definitive walk-on player.

He came to LSU on a music scholarship and played the tuba in the Tigers' band, with no interest in playing basketball in college after a brief and discouraging basketball experience in high school. But he was also 7-foot-3, and after being asked many times why he didn't play for the Tigers' basketball team, he started playing in the university's recreational league, where he dominated.

As a junior, he decided he was ready and contacted the LSU coaches, including then head coach Trent Johnson, who let him walk on last season, although he had to give up his music scholarship to do it. He played a total of 12 minutes last season and scored three points.

New coach Johnny Jonesgave Del Piero a scholarship, and he improved so much that he became a starter three games ago. He averaging 4.9 points and 3.1 rebounds while blocking 11 shots this season for the Tigers, who lost for the first time this season Friday against Boise State, even though Del Piero went 3-for-3 from the field, had five rebounds and blocked two shots.

The magnificent 7

Syracuse's Jim Boeheim won his 900th game Monday, which ranks as the third highest total among men's Division I head coaches, and seventh highest among all men's college head coaches. Five of the seven are still coaching, the exceptions being Don Meyer, who retired in 2010, and Bob Knight, who retired in 2008.